council group pictureA presentation from Kamiskotia Ski Hill highlights city council tonight.

They will be part of a rather light council schedule overall, with a couple reports and the by-law on user fees also to be decided upon.

After a week off, the live blog RETURNS with all the details of tonight’s meeting, starting at 6:00pm.

(Keep refreshing the page as the night goes along for updates!)

Kamiskotia Ski Hill presentation no longer taking place tonight.

First up is the now only presentation on the docket, and that’s from Jim Young and Richard Bouvier from the Timmins and South Porcupine Food Banks.

This is in regards to a December effort by city council to raise funds for the food bank through parking fines.

Each bank received a cheque worth $2,501.50.

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Council is approving the bike route for the Heart and Stroke Big Bike event, as well as use of the Porcupine Lake beach for the Great Canadian Chill.

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Clr. Dubeau is now up to talk about accountability in regards to the core services review and actions towards an employee at the Deloro Landfill.

Black suggests going to in-camera if they want to discuss specifics.

The issue is that an employee did something wrong that cost the city a lot of money.  The incident occurred about five years ago.

The talk around the council table is cryptic, as they don’t want to identify the individual.

The numbers show the setback cost the city around $520,000.

A report could be looked at in terms of a scheduling issue, and the CAO could talk with the department head.

CLICK HERE for the city’s email chain on it.

A report is coming back after council votes in favour of it.

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No questions or comments from items on interim tax levy and borrowing by-laws.

These will come back for approval in the by-law section.

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and on that note, BY-LAW TIME!

The first is on user fees.

Campbell says the majority of the fees will not effect a large amount of the population.

One thing for people to take a note of though is that Timmins Transit will raise their fares from $2.75 to $3.00

The slew of user fees are passed.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL LIST OF USER FEE CHANGES.

Next is regulating open air burning is passed.

Fire Chief Mike Pintar says this only changes the fees involved with open air burning.

Agreement with JL Richards for Hallnor Rail Industrial Park design is passed.

Lease agreement with Tony Last regarding 71 Main Street and the asset relocation project is passed.

Waterworks charges is passed.

Street occupancy permits is passed.

Borrowing by-law and interim tax levy are both passed.

Tariff and rates for cemetery is passed.

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and we have one more item on the agenda, as Clr. Campbell looks for support for cuts to Tourism Timmins.

He has four resolutions, which looks like will go to a vote.

The first is to reduce the advertising budget by $60,000.

Campbell says this is “good, sound financial management.”

Campbell is citing a few guides that are available at the Tourism Timmins office.  Black says council voted and determined there is value in the guides and the advertising, so they proceeded with it.

Black is looking to amend the requested by-law, one that would see Tourism Timmins review their spending and make a presentation before the 2016 budget is approved.

The amendment also talks about implementing a Destination Marketing Fee, which Campbell says changes the resolution “substantially.”

Rinaldo says she doesn’t want to discuss how the media do their jobs, and believes in the KPMG report to a certain point.

Plenty of arguing between Campbell and Mayor Black.

Meantime, there’s already a hashtag being thrown around Twitter called #supporttourism

https://twitter.com/MarnieLapierre/status/689237352594583553

(Marnie Lapierre is one of the three employees at Tourism Timmins.)

After all that, the vote is passed and Tourism Timmins will come back with a report.

Next is looking at cutting the full time positions at Tourism Timmins from three to two to save around $32,000 this year in salary and benefits and around $65,000 in future years.

The cut would come into effect June 30th, 2016.

Campbell says there is only one conference coming (FONOM) and the kayak challenge.  He believes the workload shouldn’t be for three people.

Dubeau and Campbell vote in favour, and everyone vote against it so the Tourism Timmins office will remain at three employees.

The third is to reduce the budget for travel, trade shows, public receptions and training to save around $11,000.

Campbell doesn’t believe it’s beneficial to Timmins to have someone attend shows in Toronto, Ottawa, etc.

Campbell, Dubeau, Grzela and Wawrzaszek vote in favour, while the rest vote against it and it is defeated.

The fourth and final one on the list has to do where Tourism Timmins reports to.

This would eliminate the Manager of Tourism position, replacing it with a senior tourism officer.  This would also have that person report to Development Services Manager.

Campbell is withdrawing this resolution, as CAO Joe Torlone is working on a report on reporting structures.

The last, which is a surprise to us in the media, is to look at a report on location of the Tourism office.

It’s voted in favour to be voted upon.

Black says they are exploring options, as they don’t even know if the Timmins Chamber of Commerce has any intention to go along with recommendations.

A report is being slated to come back on this by the end of March.

It is approved unanimously.

and council is adjourned!